Today's Liberal News

The U.S. Subsidy That Empowers Putin

The United States is supporting Ukraine with aid and weapons and punishing Russian aggression with financial and economic sanctions. But the United States can do more to resolve the global crisis caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine: It can end the ethanol program.For decades, the U.S. government has, at great expense, encouraged farmers to grow more corn so that it can be turned into ethanol, a gasoline additive. Ethanol makers receive all kinds of grants and subsidies.

The Crucial Difference Between Cheesy and Corny

Sign up for Caleb’s newsletter here.Language lets us taste the world around us all the time without ever opening our mouth. You don’t have to lick your smack-talking friend to know they’re salty, nor must you nibble on the Hollywood celebrity who took the lead role in a Broadway play to know their performance is hammy. Gym rats with no genetic relationship to cows are beefy, and fishy situations arise all the time in environments completely unsuitable for marine life.

Ukrainian Resident of Besieged Mykolaiv Describes Lack of Food, Water As Russian Troops Attack City

We get an update from a Ukrainian volunteer on how the Russian invasion of Ukraine has besieged the strategic southern city of Mykolaiv, where Russian troops have targeted civilian areas for shelling. Many Ukrainians are asking European nations and the U.S. to establish a no-fly zone. We speak to Igor Yudenkov in Mykolaiv, a former IT professional who is now helping other residents find shelter, feeding pets left behind, and defending the city.

Defund Putin’s War Machine: Ukrainian Environmentalist Calls For Global Halt to Fossil Fuel Funding

We speak to Svitlana Romanko, a leading Ukrainian environmental lawyer, based in the western city of Ivano-Frankivsk, which was bombed Friday. She describes the situation there, and discusses her hopes that new sanctions to prevent American banks from investing in Russian fossil fuels signal a tipping point that will force the world to transition to clean energy.

Attack on Maternity Ward is a War Crime: David Miliband on Russia’s Bombing of Mariupol

Russian forces reportedly killed at least three people when they bombed a children’s hospital in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol on Wednesday, shelling a humanitarian corridor and breaking a ceasefire deal that was was meant to allow residents to flee. The actions constitute a violation of international humanitarian law and, therefore, a potential war crime, says David Miliband of the International Rescue Committee.

Ukraine update: Russian advances stall again, even as air strikes broaden

What was predicted to be a swift Russian victory continues now as day-by-day slog as Russian forces continue to “shore up” or “regroup” for further incursions while Ukrainian defenders pick at supply lines and hold off Russian attempts to capture new ground.

The Russian “strategy” of shelling urban centers in an apparent attempt to level what they cannot militarily capture, however, continues. And the civilian death toll is rising rapidly.

Health care providers in North Carolina demand better patient support as they attempt to unionize

by Tina Vásquez

This article was originally published at Prism

Health care providers employed by North Carolina’s Piedmont Health Services (PHS) are awaiting the results of their union election, a pivotal step that is part of their larger push to address challenges that impact their ability to properly care for their patients. Their efforts are part of a larger trend.

Nuts & Bolts—Inside the Democratic Party: Are we at the end of the Iowa Caucus being first?

Welcome back to the weekly Nuts & Bolts Guide to small campaigns. Over the course of more than a decade, I’ve taken time to speak with campaign managers, field directors, communications directors, finance directors, and, of course, be a part of as many campaigns as I can. Through the feedback I receive, I try to build out Nuts & Bolts to better inform Democratic voters and donors how a campaign can and does work.

Ukraine update: China’s choice

In the days before Russia’s massive military assault on Ukraine, most analysts focused their attention on whether Ukraine’s much smaller military could offer any meaningful resistance to Russia’s near-certain victory. The Russian assault that actually took place, however, was not the one both Russia’s own leaders and outside military observers were suspecting.

The Simple Brilliance of That Amazon Go SNL Sketch

Amazon Go stores are touted as a futuristic shopping experience promising unfettered ease and speed. The stores are equipped with the company’s proprietary Just Walk Out technology, which combines a nebulous mix of “computer vision, deep learning algorithms, and sensor fusion”; shoppers scan their Amazon app to enter, grab what they want to purchase, and … leave. If that sounds like shoplifting, it apparently feels like it too.

Night Star

Footfall in the long hallways above us,painted stars on the ceiling, real stars from the balcony.Teenagers were making outby the public fountain.You had a terrible apartment: The sink water tasted like blood.I cut my fingernails over the toilet.My parents were still married in another country.Dark swallows were dropping themselves.For a whole weekend,I wore one of your shirts.That will mean the most to mein my short life. There was a big wormwood armoirewith an urn on top.

Feeling Herd

At high noon on an early-spring day in 2017, six steers doomed to die escaped their slaughterhouse and stormed the streets of my city. The escape became a nuisance, then a scene, then a phenomenon. “Man, it was crazy!” one onlooker told the local alt-weekly. “I mean, it was fucking bulls running through the city of St.